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Tag Archives: girls

Please Don’t Eat the ‘Nóiníní’ (and a few other flower phrases in Irish) Posted by on May 16, 2016

(le Róislín) Mostly we’ve been focusing on ainmneacha lately, but I thought we’d take a short break and look at the flower behind one of the flower-themed girl’s names featured in a recent blog. So today we’ll look at various uses of the word “nóinín” in Irish.  We discussed ‘nóiníní’ pretty thoroughly in the last…

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Five More Irish Names for Girls: Nóinín, Pt. 4 of ‘Names with a Flower Theme (Bláth / Bláithín / Bláthnaid, Daifne / Dafnae, Lil / Lile, Nóinín, Róisín / Róis / Róise, and, sort of, Mairéad / Maighréad)’  Posted by on May 11, 2016

(le Róislín) Daisy?  Nóra? Onóra? Honor? Nóirín vs. Nóinín?  So what exactly is going on here with this name? Well, here’s the short answer.  “Nóinín” is generally considered to be a variation of the name Nóra (Onóra), even though “Nóra” also has another diminutive form, “Nóirín” (Noreen).  The name “Onóra” means “honor (honour),” close to…

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You Just Call Out My Name (sa Tuiseal Gairmeach, of course, in Irish) (Pt. 3: Ainmneacha Buachaillí) Posted by on Jun 14, 2013

(le Róislín) In several previous blogs (links below), we looked at Irish names used in direct address, focusing on names for girls and women in the most recent one.   Today we’ll look at saying names for buachaillí (boys) and fir (men) when you’re speaking directly to them. In English, there is no official change when…

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You Just Call Out My Name (sa Tuiseal Gairmeach, of course, in Irish) (Pt. 2: Ainmneacha Cailíní) Posted by on Jun 11, 2013

(le Róislín) Remember how “Séamas” changes to “a Shéamais” and “Sinéad” changes to “a Shinéad” for direct address in Irish?  (Nasc: https://blogs.transparent.com/irish/you-just-call-out-my-name-sa-tuiseal-gairmeach-of-course-in-irish-pt-1/).  The first blog in this mini-series discussed Irish given names in general, and gave some specific examples for use with phrases like “Dia duit!” (Hello) and “Slán agat!” (Good-bye!).  We looked at a…

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Na hUimhreacha Pearsanta i nGaeilge (Irish Personal Numbers and Cuid a Cúig or the Last Installment of Dhá Lá Dhéag na Nollag) Posted by on Jan 6, 2011

(le Róislín) Fotheideal (perhaps too long for the subject line): Ag comhaireamh na ndaoine san amhrán “Dhá Lá Dhéag na Nollag” Learning to use the numbers in Irish is often considered one of the more challenging aspects of the language.   Often you start out with the “maoluimhreacha” (independent numbers) such as “a haon, a dó…

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